When Eik met up with Olivia, Gul, and Andihar, there were already more than ten thousand Awakened gathered and ready to go.

Eik wasn't sure he had ever seen this many people gathered together for the same cause in his life—certainly not since most humans were wiped off the face of the planet—and more were still pouring in. Maybe there had been this many gathered for the announcement at the Alchemist Guild of Gimleh but most would have been packed in the winding streets so it felt different.

This was an enormous open field often used for large events like festivals and other celebrations.

The world that hosted Gimleh and the Nidafjeld Alliance had very specifically not been chosen for the gathering of that many powerful Awakened. Even with tight security and interception of any sort of dimensional travel, it was too risky to create a prime subject for mass destruction like that close to a city with a large population such as Gimleh considering that the Alliance was undoubtedly infiltrated by cultist spies.

The event grounds were located on an uninhabited planet used for a number of miscellaneous activities like that and was the perfect place to gather. In the event of a preemptive attack by Moon Shall Swallow, none of the Awakened here would be averse to releasing their full power.

For all of the smaller war efforts against the cult carried out by Alliance forces the past days, they had gathered like this first as well. Every time.

Each platoon had always been informed of their destinations on the day after arriving, thus not leaving a large gap where an information leak could happen.

They had decided to do the same today.

Once the leadership of each platoon had shown up today, they had come to meet with Eik, Andihar, Clan Leader Gul, and three Alliance officials and been briefed on the cult base they would be hitting this time.

None but Eik, Andihar, Gul, and the three officials even knew that today was the day where it would all come to a head and they weren't going to be announcing that today's individual briefings had been a ruse until the last few moments before they took off. It was much the same idea as when they had gone to rescue the oracle.

Taking into consideration the sheer size of the operation now, there were no real expectations that it would be as effective as back then but if it could create even a bit of confusion in the cult, it would be worth it.

For once, Eik actually found himself quite liking the three leaders sent by the Alliance. Technically, they were indeed officials like the others annoying bastards he had bumped heads with, but these guys were warriors. They were generals through and through, used to combat and blood rather than paperwork and formal discussions.

They were experts in war and well educated in strategy and had very useful inputs about the operation and listened to anything Eik and the others had to say with open minds. It was a great change of pace from the usual dullards he had dealt with from the Alliance.

It was two human-like men, one at peak grade A-rankers named Balafo, another at S-rank named Pölse, and a woman from the race of red-skinned humanoids who was a powerful S-ranker named Mn'toakh.

"All members of our platoon are now accounted for. We are ready to move out at any time." The platoon leader addressed Eik directly, showing a preference for Eik. The guy must have been one of the people he had brought along to rescue the Oracle.

After the way Eik had happily and readily dished out the Legendary Mystery Medicine that he had promised every participant and even visited the families of those who had not made it hope to give the extremely valuable reward to them instead, there wasn't an Awakened that day who didn't walk away with immense respect for the man named Eik Magnasen.

Eik regarded the other five. "I guess we're ready to go then, eh?"

They all nodded and Andihar grew to twenty times his normal size, suddenly towering above the Awakened gathered on the field. "Listen up, everyone!" he spoke, the sounds of his enormous voice traveling easily enough with everybody quiet. "In a few moments, we'll open ten fractures, like always. Leaders, guide your guys through your assigned portal and await further instructions on the other side. All right, let's get this thing going again, shall we?"

The giant clapped and soon fractures sprung into existence around the outer edges of the field with plenty of room between each other. Obeying orders, the countless Awakened began to file through the portals in quiet chatter.

They were joking and laughing, all used to life of going into battle over and over again. A possibility of death was simply a bit of flavor for them at this point, and if they hadn't been able to handle that, they would never have made it as far as they had.

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With such an orderly progression, it didn't take long before the last of them were through and Eik and the others followed them through, preceding only the fracture specialists who were maintaining the fractures through massive amounts of borrowed energy.

Once through they were met with confused stares. All ten of the fractures had spit the Awakened warriors out in the same, other field instead of different worlds as they had expected.

Andihar grew again and cleared his throat loudly. "I imagine most of you are a tad puzzled right now. We apologize, but it was done out of caution. The less all of you knew ahead of time, the less likely we were to suffer information leaks. Not to say we don't trust you, but there are many ways it can happen as you all know."

Eik slapped the toe of his huge boot, rolling his hand in the air.

"Right, right," Andihar said and took a second to collect his thoughts. "Today is not another battery of raids. Today we're attacking one of the cult's largest cores. We have two objectives," he said and held up two fingers. "The first is mayhem, and the other is destruction."

Chuckles ran through the large crowd. Andihar laughed as well. "And by that I mean, reduce the number of effective fighters on their side as quickly as possible. And second, prioritize the destruction of what is referred to as Life Harvesters. They are stationary, non-aggressive monsters with the potential to wreak large scale havoc." Andihar intentionally remained somewhat vague and continued.

"They will obviously know that we're coming at some point, given all that has happened this past week, but hopefully we can take them by surprise even if just a little," one of the Alliance generals, Pölse, added. The troops nodded.

"And another thing," Andihar continued. "I can't stress enough how important it is that the abdominal sacks of these wretched Life Harvesters are not pierced or otherwise badly damaged. If you remember one thing I've said, please make sure that it's that. The contents of such a sack are unbelievably volatile and, if unleashed without the proper precautionary measures in place, will most certainly obliterate everything in sight. Under no circumstances should you take chances with this."

"And yet you want us to destroy them?" a platoon leader raised his hand to ask, face an image of puzzlement.

"I know it is a little counterintuitive, yes," he said with a nod. "and if you are unable to take down a Life Harvester without running the risk of damaging the abdominal sack, then it would be better to leave it be and wait for someone else to do it. Attacks that strike the internals only, isolated magical attacks, or precision attacks such as stabs with a blade or projectiles. That would be ideal."

The platoon leader grunted and muttered. "We'll take care of it ourselves."

A few more questions came up but time was of the essence and another set of fractures were opened which would take them from this inter-spacial world to the world where the large cult base was located.

Unlike the previous procession, Eik hopped in and spearheaded the first group through. On the other side was deep forest. Coming through together with Eik were stealth specialists ready to set up a barrier to suppress any indication of their presence.

They immediately went to work and the rest of the Awakened quickly joined them. Within ten minutes they were moving toward the base at great speeds, soaring through the air above the trees.

Stopping about a hundred meters before the tree line, Eik stepped a few paces away from the group and put his whole finger in his mouth.

"What in the world are you doing?" the female S-ranker named Mn'Toakh asked him incredulously from the front of the procession. Besides Eik, Andihar, Gul, Pölse, and Mn'Toakh, three other S-rankers had joined them, and they were also staring at him with a mixture of skepticism and annoyance, like they didn't know whether they could still trust him to be sane enough to be a part of the leadership of this operation.

There had been attempts by some of the influential clans and group within the Nidafjeld Alliance to seize control of the war efforts against Moon Shall Swallow. But Eik's custody of the Oracle meant that so long as he didn't budge, there wasn't much that could be done to take over. And he would never budge.

"Checking the strength and direction of the wind," he answered nonchalantly.

"Why?"

"I'm going to kick this whole thing into gear with a big skill."

"And this skill… is dependent on the current weather? Aren't you an S-ranker?"

Eik grinned. "Not really—dependent on the weather, that is. I'm totally an S-ranker," he assured her, somehow managing to sound completely untrustworthy about the part that actually was true. "I was just goofing around a little bit."

"You'll get used to it at some point," Gul said, rolling his eyes at Eik's typical behavior.

"Perhaps," Mn'Toakh huffed. "But maybe I could convince you to take this a bit more seriously, Mr. Magnasen. You would agree that war is no time for silly jokes."

He shrugged. "Most situations could do with a bit of silliness if you ask me. So if the job gets done properly, then why not enjoy the parts that can be enjoyed?"

Mn'Toakh looked at him like it was the dumbest thing she had ever heard anybody say but Eik didn't mind.

Backflow was the first buff to trigger, followed immediately by the brilliant crown of Monarch's Will, a dose of various potions which now didn't have nearly as great of an effect on him since reaching S-rank, and finally Profound Unity, the armor and coating emanating extreme depths of power.

Everyone watching, including the S-rankers felt it in their stomach as they watched him. It was obvious to anyone seeing it, that there was something not normal about Eik Magnasen.

When he raised his hand, all eyes were on him, none daring to look away. The small bead of concentrated Profound Toxin that he fired into the air exploded into the largest Apocalypse Canvas he had ever made, spanning kilometers in all directions.

At impressive speeds the inverse sea began to move toward the sky above the cult base. It would start off the mayhem just in time for the main force to arrive.

"Time to go," Eik announced and set off, not bothering to check if the others were following. But everybody did. More than twenty thousand high-rankers went to war, led by one of the strongest Awakened in the Unified Mass. Led by Eik Magnasen.

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